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The Future Of Healthcare
Added: (Tue Oct 30 2001)
Telemedicine Online with Healthwatch and medicdirect.co.uk
The UK’s foremost specialist health channel www.medicdirect.co.uk (“medicdirect”) has entered into a strategic alliance with leading healthcare specialists Healthwatch of Nestor Healthcare Group plc (“Healthwatch”), to provide a unique 24/7 telemedicine monitoring service to patient/consumers accessing the medicdirect website in the UK.
The service, hosted by the Healthwatch team of trained cardiologists and nurses, provides a 24 hours 7 days a week monitoring service to patients at risk. The Healthwatch technology, installed in the user’s home and linked to their landline telephone, provides a service whereby patients can download data to the Healthwatch monitoring team relating to weight, blood pressure, pulse and respiratory complaints. ECG readings for patients with heart conditions can also be transmitted by both landlines and mobiles to the Healthwatch Clinical Response Centre. The Healthwatch medical team not only monitor the readings but can give advice to the patients quickly by telephone at any time of the day or night.
Speaking at the announcement of the initiative at the Healthwatch Clinical Response Centre in Hatfield, medicdirect’s Medical Director David Morgan FRCS commented that “for patients and their relatives the Healthwatch service in association with medicdirect provides peace of mind, and at the same time it will be welcomed by GP’s and hospitals because it will save the NHS both time and money.”
Angela Single RGN BA Hons, Managing Director of Healthwatch, expressed delight at partnering with medicdirect to promote this innovative service. “Telemedicine online is the way forward for healthcare in the UK and Healthwatch is the first UK company to bring this fantastic new health monitoring service to patients at risk. Partnering with such an influential and credible health information provider as medicdirect and their team of leading teaching hospital consultants and GP’s provides Healthwatch with a first-mover advantage in the provision of telemedicine monitoring services to patient/consumers in the UK” said Ms Single.
The partnership, for an initial period of 12 months, will also provide Healthwatch with access to the medicdirect Research and Development team at a leading University who are developing remote patient monitoring systems utilising artificial neural networks.
Healthwatch and medicdirect are also actively discussing other joint initiatives to promote their respective healthcare services both to patients and healthcare professionals in the UK.
The Healthwatch service can be accessed through the medicdirect website at www.medicdirect.co.uk/healthwatch/introduction.html
-ENDS-
About medicdirect
Medicdirect ( www.medicdirect.co.uk ) is an interactive British website providing a complete health information and education resource for both consumers and medical practitioners. The site, launched in March 2000, is hosted by over 90 leading NHS specialists - all teaching hospital consultants or GP’s, including 14 professors and 52 honorary senior lecturers.
Medicdirect supplements the medical information supplied by the patients’ own doctors but avoids the hazards of online diagnosis used in other health websites. The patient is able to navigate the site easily and their awareness of health issues is enhanced by the use of multimedia - including videos, 3D graphics and cool tools.
As a health content provider medicdirect licenses health information to the leading ISP's and broadcasters in the UK including AOL, CompuServe, Tiscali, NTL, Telewest, GMTV and Freeserve.
Medicdirect offers:
· Unique and original content devised written and filmed by all the consultants who are contracted to the company to continue to provide original content at least every 3 months for the next five years.
· An intimate understanding of consumer demands both in the NHS and private sectors – vital in the provision of expert and concise medical information online.
About Healthwatch
Nestor Healthwatch Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nestor Healthcare Group plc (Nestor), the UK's leading independent provider of temporary health professionals, care workers and related services. Nestor comprises companies focused on providing professionals and workers for temporary and permanent placements and added-value healthcare services in the UK's health and care sector including the British Nursing Association, Primecare and Healthcall.
Healthwatch provides a valuable service for people in their own homes who, for a broad range of reasons, are concerned about their health. The service is delivered by an unrivalled combination of highly qualified clinical professionals who can monitor and maintain a patient's health from a distance via user-friendly devices that connect to a telephone line in the home.
For further press information please contact:
Medicdirect: Healthwatch
Peter Morgan Amanda Harding
Tel: 01525 382677 Tel: 01707 255409
Email: peter.morgan@medicdirect.co.uk Email: amanda.harding@healthwatch.org.uk